Africa-Press – Zambia. PF acting President Given Lubinda says the party may consider using a different name if avenues being explored to get the name of the party back fail.
Lubinda adds that holding the PF together has been a difficult undertaking, especially after losing the 2021 general elections.
Speaking when he featured on Millennium TV’s Pulse Nation programme, Wednesday, Lubinda said his party was exploring a number of alternatives, including talking to Robert Chabinga, in order to get the PF name back.
When asked if the party had considered regrouping under another political party’s name, Lubinda affirmed that the option was open.
“That’s an option that is open for us to use. We could also say we’re having this convention under the auspices of the Patriotic Front. That’s also an option, we have options to use. One is to use the PF with or without having the registered name, the other is for us to abandon it and use another vehicle. It’s like a person who’s on a journey, you’re on the bus and the bus breaks down and the driver of that bus decides he’s going to sleep. He doesn’t want to repair the bus and another bus comes along and it’s empty. What do you do? It’s going in the same direction you are going, what do you do? You jump on the bus because it will take you to the same destiny that the original bus could have taken you,” he said.
“So we’re leaving those options open. We’re using all options including talking to Chabinga. Right now I won’t go into that because we haven’t concluded yet. I don’t want to pre-empt anything. You didn’t know about the conversations we were having with Miles Sampa until the conversations were concluded. So, we’ll leave it at that. All you ought to know is that we’re going to a convention at the end of November either under the PF name or under an alternative and we’re pursuing this including talking to Chabinga”.
Lubinda noted that the decision on whether or not to use a different name would have to be made before the party holds its convention.
He added that his party hoped that the Judiciary would give its judgement on the matter before the convention.
“We’re hoping, and I hope we’re not hoping against hope. I’m hoping the Judiciary will do what’s expected of them: that they’ll dispose of the matter that’s in court. You may have heard the last time when there was a status conference over this matter and later on there was a ruling on the matter, the court told us we have to go to a full trial. We’re hoping that this full trial can take place quickly and the judgement be handed down. And we hope that the judgement will entail that the party name and the certificate is given back to us, the bonafide owners of the party. And we hope that can happen before we go to the convention. If not, the party will have to make a decision, because we cannot have a convention without having a name and that decision will have to be made by the Central Committee before holding the convention. If we decide that because the name has not been given to us, we may decide that we’re using a different umbrella, we’re using a different name,” he said.
He added that Chabinga had the party name and not the people.
“Chabinga has the registered name called Patriotic Front. But does he have the party? No. The party is the people. The party is made up of the members. And where are the members? Are the members with Chabinga? No. The members are with us, the members of the central committee which was elected together with president Edgar Lungu in April 2021 which at the moment is being led by myself, that’s where the people are. The secretariat, I mentioned to you that the Secretary General’s Office and the Secretariat are going out, revitalising these structures. They are not answering to Chabinga, they’re answering to Raphael Nakacinda and in effect answering to the central committee that I head. So, we have the party and Chabinga has the registered name. We control the party, that’s what is happening. When we want people to move in one direction they’ll move, when we tell the people to stop moving, they will stop. We’re in control of the party machinery,” he said.
Lubinda lamented that holding the PF together had been a difficult undertaking, especially after losing the 2021 general elections.
“It has not been an easy time to hold the party together especially after having lost elections in 2021. Discerning viewers and discerning Zambians will recall that after the elections of 2021, a lot of people left the Patriotic Front. A lot of them remained mute, they didn’t want to be associated with the Patriotic Front. There were some who even tendered resignations openly, publicly, they said I’m no longer this or the other, but indeed there were some who stood firm. They believed in the future of the Patriotic Front and they held the party together at great cost to themselves,” he said.
“A lot of people had to suffer all sorts of indignation and all sorts of frustration. A lot of our people who stood by the party were subjected to unnecessary searches at their homes, accounts frozen, businesses closed. I am one of those typical examples who was doing business and the government is holding on to their money. Since 2021 this government has not paid me. Why? Because of my sacrifice to hold on to this party”.
Meanwhile, Lubinda said those who accused him of wanting to sell the PF to the Socialist Party were either sponsored or wanted to bring confusion.
“Those making those allegations, what you have to bear in mind is that some of them were coming from a position of spoiling. They wanted to spoil. There were some who were doing it because they may have been sponsored. I’ve said that it has been clear to any person who has been following politics in Zambia for the last five years that UPND wants PF destroyed and they are using all sorts of methods. Is anything strange if some people were sponsored to create internal problems? That wouldn’t be strange to me. There are some issues that are internal but there are others also that are fostered from outside. And when you hear people say Lubinda wants to sell PF to the Socialist Party when actually what I have been doing is exactly what president Edgar Lungu wanted us to do: ‘unite all opposition political parties.’ That has been our agenda,” said Lubinda.
“On the 28th of October 2023 when president Lungu decided to come back into active politics, what was his message? His message was, ‘I cannot watch the democratic space being destroyed, I have come back to active politics with one intention, to bring all political parties together.’ So, when some people saw me fraternising with other political parties under the United opposition Front, it suited them to try and create an impression that they were the ones who were more loyal to the Patriotic Front than I am, Raphael Nakacinda, but time has vindicated us. There’s no person who can be more loyal to the Patriotic Front than myself. I am completely engrossed in ensuring that the Patriotic Front succeeds”.
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